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NCE 28 or 128?

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NCE 28 or 128?
Posted by Harley-Davidson on Monday, June 14, 2010 3:40 PM

I´ve a NCE PowerCab. It starts in 28 speed steps (after I turn to 128), but fellow´s starts directly in 128 !!!.What happens? I´ve the 28 functions chip, and I want that stars in 128...Thanks.

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Posted by locoi1sa on Monday, June 14, 2010 5:43 PM

 Let me understand this. You want your power cab to power up in 128 speed steps? Speed steps has nothing to do with how many functions there are. The Power cab by default boots up in 28 speed steps. I do not think that it can be set to start up in 128. That is why they put the button on it.

      Pete

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Posted by Hamltnblue on Monday, June 14, 2010 6:27 PM

 He might be talking about the cab holding the speed steps.  If running multiple loco's I'm not sure that if you switch a loco to 128 speed steps then switch to another, when you come back it's still at 128.  I cant put my finger on it but I think there is an issue there.  The Procab has it as well.

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Posted by Motley on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 10:14 AM
I can't understand a word he is trying to say.

Michael


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Posted by tstage on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 10:56 AM

No, I think Harley is wanting his Power Cab to boot up automatically in 128 speed step mode, rather than having to push the 28/128 button everytime to switch it from 28 to 128.

Tom

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Posted by richg1998 on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 11:05 AM

 I press the 28/128 button and then hit Enter for 128. I cheated and followed the instruction manual.
Last night at our club, I had a HO PCM A/B F3 and BLI A/B F7  in consist all together running in 128 mode just fine on a NCE Power Pro system. They start at 1 mph at speed step one.

Rich

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Posted by Harley-Davidson on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 2:00 PM

IOP. Is so difficult the question?: I´ve a NCE PowerCab. It starts in 28 speed steps, then I turn it to 128 with the proper button 28/128 and Enter, and no problem.......::: but: the Power Cab of several friends, starts directly in 128 speed steps,and after, if they want, turn to 28 steps. !!!.What happens? Why the difference??? ...Thanks.

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Posted by richg1998 on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 2:15 PM

 Ask your friends. Makes sense t me.

 Rich

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Posted by jalajoie on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 2:39 PM

Harley-Davidson

IOP. Is so difficult the question?: I´ve a NCE PowerCab. It starts in 28 speed steps, then I turn it to 128 with the proper button 28/128 and Enter, and no problem.......::: but: the Power Cab of several friends, starts directly in 128 speed steps,and after, if they want, turn to 28 steps. !!!.What happens? Why the difference??? ...Thanks.

I don't know, mine also start at 28 speed steps. To make it worst when in 128 speed steps it will only go as high as 126.

Jack W.

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Posted by Harley-Davidson on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 3:21 PM

"I don't know, mine also start at 28 speed steps. To make it worst when in 128 speed steps it will only go as high as 126."

Me too. Beside, answering to Rich, my friends don´t know why. Also, NCE can´t explain it. But I see with my eyes what I say. And all models reach 126 speed steps!!! Thanks all

 

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Posted by rrinker on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 4:01 PM

 Interesting, just read the PowerCab manual and there doesn't seem to be a documented way to make the default either 28 or 128. Perhaps there is an undocumented thign somewhere. Seems kind of odd that this is not one of the cab configuration options. I don't know about other systems, but with Digitrax you can set what the default will be for each new selected loco, but override it if needed. With the handy 28/128 button on the PowerCab I'd think there'd be some sort of similar option, all new locos are X, unless you hit the button to change it. Seems like it's in there, somewhere, if some people have them coming up in 128 by default and other are 28, but it truly is not in the manual, at least the copy on the NCE web site.

                                     --Randy

 


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Posted by locoi1sa on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 4:09 PM

 Are your friends Power cabs hooked up to the SB3 booster? The SB3 becomes the command station and will remember what the power cab was set for on shut down. There is no Power cab I know of that is stand alone and boots in 128 SS. A pro cab that looks similar to a power cab will boot to 128 SS if shut down in the same mode. But that is in the command station memory and not the cabs.

  If your friend has a stand alone power cab that boots to 128 SS then something is wrong.

    Pete

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Posted by CSX Robert on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 4:22 PM
Harley-Davidson

"I don't know, mine also start at 28 speed steps. To make it worst when in 128 speed steps it will only go as high as 126."

Me too. Beside, answering to Rich, my friends don´t know why. Also, NCE can´t explain it. But I see with my eyes what I say. And all models reach 126 speed steps!!! Thanks all

 

That's because there are actually only 126 speed steps! The "128" speed steps includes "stop" and "emergency stop." In the 28 speed step setting, there truly are 28 speed steps so the throttle will go all the way to 28, but for some reason when the NMRA named the higher step setting they included stop and emergency stop in the number of speed steps(the 28 step setting has stop and emergency stop, they just are not counted in the number of steps).
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Posted by jalajoie on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 4:28 PM

Thanks CSXRobert, I guess we are never too old to learn something.

Jack W.

bdh
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Posted by bdh on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 8:08 PM

I bought my PowerCab about 5 years ago.  I can't remember now if it was originally set to 128 speed steps or not.  Whatever -- I set it to 128 and thereafter it always booted up in 128 mode.

Then a year or two later, I was offered and bought an upgrade chip.  That chip always starts in 28 step mode.  Phoned Larry at NCE service & he confirmed what I was experiencing but offered no promise of a change or further upgrades.

So, I just live with it.  Every time I turn on the power I have to set each loco to 128 speed steps.

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Posted by Hamltnblue on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 9:10 PM

 Yup, good explanation of the 128 speed steps Robert.  I never run at max speed so I couldn't tell what the max is on mine.  I'm sure there wouldn't be much difference between 126 and 128 if the later existed.

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Posted by jwhitten on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 7:39 AM

bdh

I bought my PowerCab about 5 years ago.  I can't remember now if it was originally set to 128 speed steps or not.  Whatever -- I set it to 128 and thereafter it always booted up in 128 mode.

Then a year or two later, I was offered and bought an upgrade chip.  That chip always starts in 28 step mode.  Phoned Larry at NCE service & he confirmed what I was experiencing but offered no promise of a change or further upgrades.

So, I just live with it.  Every time I turn on the power I have to set each loco to 128 speed steps.

 

 

Ah, yes. That would explain it. I thought mine did that too-- I upgraded the chip and it stopped. I thought I was just mis-remembering or something. Thanks for the info.

 

John

Modeling the South Pennsylvania Railroad ("The Hilltop Route") in the late 50's
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Posted by Hamltnblue on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 2:19 PM

 Sometimes when companies "fix" things with firmware upgrades they accidentally break others.

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Posted by Harley-Davidson on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 2:57 PM

 

"Then a year or two later, I was offered and bought an upgrade chip.  That chip always starts in 28 step mode.  Phoned Larry at NCE service & he confirmed what I was experiencing but offered no promise of a change or further upgrades"

IOP. I purchased the PowerCab and inmediately NCE released their upgrade chip, that NCE sent to me free. So my PowerCab always booted up in 28 steps. Larry wrote me -six months ago- about a future software upgrade about the topic 28/128 ("see our web page"), but I´m still awaiting.

Beside, NCE people, do you know how the "Recall" button works? If I press it directly between the present loco and the previous, don´t works. Thanks

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Posted by tstage on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 3:20 PM

Harley-Davidson
Beside, NCE people, do you know how the "Recall" button works? If I press it directly between the present loco and the previous, don´t works. Thanks

Harley, 

If you already have one locomotive in the recall stack...and you're operating a 2nd locomotive...then decide you want to control the first one again....you press RECALL and the first locomotive's address should appear on the Power Cab's LCD screen and its address will become "active" - i.e. you can control it with the Power Cab.  If it doesn't then...something is amiss.

With the Power Cab you are limited to 2 locomotives in the recall stack.

Tom

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Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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Posted by Hamltnblue on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 3:42 PM

 If you read the instructions, to add a loco to the recall stack you don't hit select loco with the first loco on the screen.  I believe you hit recall loco to bring up the next slot then hit select loco with the new loco number.  After that recall will switch between the 2.  As noted before the power cab can have 2 loco's in the recall stack.  The PhPro can be adjusted to more.

Springfield PA

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